A shielded electrical connector is essential to the prevention the transmission of electrical noise from or to electronic machines to be used close to one another, especially in signal transmission or interface of digital equipment. Since regulations involving electromagnetic interference (EMI) are increasingly more strict, needs for such shielded electrical connectors are growing rapidly.
A shielded electrical connector is normally used with a flat or circular shielded cable and the shield or ground wires of such cable are electrically connected to a shielded electrically conductive shell essentially covering or enclosing the outside of such shielded electrical connector. The electrically conductive shell is usually connected to an electrically conductive panel or ground conductor layer on a circuit board of the electronic equipment using such a connector.
A typical conductive shell of a conventional shielded electrical connector is disclosed in, for example, Japanese UM Pub. No. 39901/'91 and is configured by stamping and forming an electrically conductive metal plate in such a manner as to cover the mating portion of an insulating housing, and also to be connected to a ground conductor of a circuit board. Also, Japanese Patent Pub. No. 17736/71 discloses a shielded electrical connector in which an electrically conductive layer is formed on the outer surface of an insulating housing to isolate and retain a large number of contacts.
However, the known shielded electrical connector which uses a metal plate does not cover the whole outer surface of the connector, thereby making it difficult to obtain perfect shielding, and it is further very complicated and expensive to assemble the shielding member and the insulating housing. On the other hand, the connector adopting the latter shielding approach has a disadvantage in applications involving a high frequency shielded electrical connectors. Also, conventional shielded electrical connectors experience difficulty in directly connecting ground terminals to the electrically conductive shell.